Kukla's Korner Hockey

Consultancy firm Brand Finance, which tracks the clout of brand names in the real world, estimates that the NHL will lose nearly US$328.2 million in brand value in 2013 as fans spend less money on hockey in the coming year.

Much of the fallout comes from casual hockey fans who have decided to look elsewhere for their entertainment, said Brand Finance managing director Edgar Baum. He said the hockey league has offered what some people deemed too few incentives to return to arenas.

"It is possible to recover (the brand value), but we're not seeing any indication that's going to happen," Baum said.

The brand value report was coupled with a survey of Canadian hockey fans completed by its partner firm Level 5, which showed that 41 per cent of casual hockey fans are feeling "more negatively about the sport" after the most recent lockout.

"The difference this time is that they are going back with a big chip on their shoulder," said David Kincaid, managing partner and CEO of Level 5.

"The chip on the shoulder becomes interesting when next year's season tickets come forward, when the indulgence of the rush back to the game is taken care of, and we're back to business as usual."

Comments

A couple things:

1. The consultancy firm noted the Canadian market, didn’t see the U.S. market mentioned
2. How is the Canadian economy doing compared to the U.S. economy?
- we know the U.S. economy isn’t doing great so those factors have to play into it, other than “the fan is coming back with a chip on their shoulder”, thus not going to spend.

The end result = not spending as much, but the reasons certainly may be different than what they suggest, as in the angry fan.

The NHL has tried to calm disgruntled fans since the games resumed, offering up discounted tickets, free snacks and sports memorabilia giveaways. The league also took out a full-page advertisements in newspapers last month apologizing to fans and encouraging them to return to the games.
Kincaid suggested that if that’s the extent of the NHL’s efforts, then they should expect further discontent from fans.
“For a brand that is laden with negative emotional attributes… until those negatives are dealt with, it doesn’t matter how differentiated you are,” he said.

Much of the fallout comes from casual hockey fans who have decided to look elsewhere for their entertainment, said Brand Finance managing director Edgar Baum. He said the hockey league has offered what some people deemed too few incentives to return to arenas.

Like the ticket price raises in Chicago and MSP.

Posted by
SYF
from the C7.R, flyin' low and feelin' mean on 02/13/13 at 01:59 PM ET

I’m not a casual fan, but NHL, Inc. is not getting a dime of money from me this season. I know that some of my cable bill goes to NHL, Inc., but I have no control over that unless I want to get rid of all the sports channels thanks to tiered pricing. It looks like I will be attending one Wings game this season, courtesy of a free ticket. But I won’t be dropping a dime at the concession and souvenir stands at the game. My pittance doesn’t amount to anything more than a grain of sand to NHL, Inc., but I worked hard to get it and I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste it on the bastards in New York that are such piss poor stewards of the game.